From Mozart to milonga We Bostonians may swathe ourselves in sweaters and lock our doors against the blustery weather, but once the music begins, dance performances can help us shake off the shivers — and often transport us to more temperate climes.

Airs and graces Somewhere in the middle of Stephen Petronio’s terrific hour-long dance I Drink the Air Before Me last Friday night, the dancers exited and the space went dark.

Happy returns George Balanchine didn’t go in for productions of the old classic ballets.

From Mozart to milonga We Bostonians may swathe ourselves in sweaters and lock our doors against the blustery weather, but once the music begins, dance performances can help us shake off the shivers — and often transport us to more temperate climes.

Airs and graces Somewhere in the middle of Stephen Petronio’s terrific hour-long dance I Drink the Air Before Me last Friday night, the dancers exited and the space went dark.

Happy returns George Balanchine didn’t go in for productions of the old classic ballets.

Still life Nobody knew very much about Mike Disfarmer. Even his name was a fabrication.

The Big Hurt: Dialing up Billboard’s Ringtones Chart We may scoff at the very idea of Billboard ’s ignominious Ringtones chart, but mobile phones are one of only three viable revenue channels musicians have left these days (the other two being commercial licensing and crooked charities).

Molten metal Let’s cut to the chase — metal is back. And not just as a popular musical style, but as a subculture, freely seeping into the mainstream in a variety of strange ways, from the bullet belts you see on a dance floor to the devil horns being thrown by everybody and your uncle’s band.

Pardon the interruption Maybe it was when saxophonist Kelly Roberge, instrument in hand, leapt off the Cambridge YMCA Theatre stage in the middle of a performance by the Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra and fled the auditorium — as if in extreme gastro-intestinal distress.

Cheap thrills They say Dr. Lakra got his pen name from the doctor’s bag he carried around when he first began tattooing, two decades ago. “Lakra” puns on the Spanish word “lacra,” meaning scar or blemish, but it’s also slang for “delinquent” or “scumbag.”

Review: Death at a Funeral Once the enfant terrible of misogynistic movies (see 1997’s In the Company of Men ), Neil LaBute has moved on to remakes. His take on a 1973 horror classic ( The Wicker Man ) is either classically horrible or classically brilliant.

PHOTOS: MASSCANN'S 2010 FREEDOM RALLY | September 24, 2010 MassCann, our state's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, hosts the 2010 Freedom Rally at Boston Common on September 18, 2010.